BassPlayer 2017-01

“ManUNkind.” How involved are you in the process?
It’s a weird thing. On this album I had plenty of ideas prepared,
but James already had so much stuff. On Death Magnetic I didn’t
have so many ideas, but I had more writing credits. Hardwired was
really centered on James’ riffs. Initially, “ManUNkind” was something
that I had prepared and envisioned as an instrumental. Then
James and I jammed together, and it became this beautiful piece
of music. As far as arranging goes, a lot of that process comes
from Lars [Ulrich, drums] and James. I’m there to support them.
You sound a little surprised that “ManUNkind” is on there.
I only found out about it last week; I didn’t know. That’s kind of
exciting for me. It’s beautiful that Lars included [my intro] in the song.
It has a bit of a Jaco influence, like “Continuum” or
“Blackbird.”
It’s classic Metallica, but there is that Jaco ingredient. Anything
that I create, I’m always pulling from my influences. On a
lot of the Suicidal Tendencies music I’m playing fretless bass, like
the fretless intro to “You Can’t Bring Me Down” [Lights … Camera
… Revolution!, 1990, Epic]. There’s a lot of that in my writing.
Is it a conscious decision to put those influences in there?
I’m always reaching and connecting with people like Anthony
Jackson and Jaco. All of the music with Infectious Grooves was
inspired by Jaco—hands down. Along with Larry Graham, he was
my #1 influence with that band.
When you’re young, you’ve got lot of fire, and you try a
lot of different things—there are no rules.
Yes, and whether it’s good or bad doesn’t really matter. It’s
that punk attitude. I wasn’t trying to learn Jaco songs note-fornote;
I think I do that more now. But it wasn’t about that when I
was composing back in the days of Infectious or Suicidal. It was
more about taking the attitude and the technique and applying
it to original ideas.
How does that apply to a band like Metallica, which
requires a bit more restraint in the bass parts?
I always try to cater to the balance of the song and being simple,
but at the same time, some of the intros, and some of the stuff
that pops out in the mix, is all influenced by my heroes. A song
like “Suicide & Redemption” is influenced by Anthony Jackson. I
go there. I’m playing the low B, I’m playing something repetitive,
and I’m doing it really heavy. That comes from him.
Jackson, Jaco, and Graham seem like unconventional
influences for a bass player in the world’s most popular
metal band.
Well, Geezer Butler is another huge influence. He has this sense
of melody within a line that just always fits well within the chord
progression or riff, so I always try to pull from him, too. It’s great
when you can find that ingredient that works for you and apply it.
Overall, your lines on Hardwired are fairly straightforward.
As a bass player on this stuff, what was really fun and interesting
was the art of simplifying and finding ways to create a pulse
within the song, whether it’s fast or in-your-face and aggressive.
Finding a certain rhythmic pulse that complements James Hetfield’s
guitars—and also the drums—was something that was
different from anything I’ve ever done in the past. That was the
great thing about Greg [Fidelman, producer]: He helped me find
the rhythms that were going to work against the guitars, so I’m
not playing exactly what the guitars are playing.
I was curious about that on the song “Hardwired.”
It’s an interesting balance. On songs like “Hardwired” that’s
where we actually started checking that out—going for a slightly
different rhythm. It’s very subtle, but it creates strength in the riff.
Normally in the past I’d go for mimicking the riff, and of course,
One Of A Kind By
Chris Jisi
“It was just a raw musical moment that now lives
forever in front of a great Metallica song,” says Robert Trujillo about his
impromptu chordal piece that Metallica ended up using as an intro to
“ManUNkind.” Example 1 approximates the first four measures. Indeed,
you can hear the spontaneity as guitarist James Hetfield finds his way
through the piece, initiating his melody line. Fortunately, the tape was
rolling. “I think it works well because you have this peaceful opening that
works like a musical dawn going into this powerful, swaggering song.”
Robert used his Warwick Signature 5-string and played fingerstyle, with
his thumb on the A string, index finger on the D, and middle finger on
the G. Try to maintain an even pace to make the rhythms clear, and let
all the notes ring.
Flowing ballad
= 62
A Asus4 Am7 G/A Am7 G/A A
Ex. 1
Let all notes ring (especially open A’s)....
0 111414 11 11 0
12 1414 12 12 0
10 1212 10 10 1212 10 0
10 12 0 10 1212 10 10 0
9 1212 9 9
0 10 9 0 9 7 0 76 0000000
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